The original Frieren rant (3/24)

I’m posting this on my page for archiving…

SPOILERS FOR FRIEREN: BEYOND JOURNEY’S END

[Opinion Piece, do not @ me--] After watching snippets here and there of the ‘Frieren’ anime I finally decided to give the manga a try yesterday. Based on the comments I saw, I think I read all the way till the end of the season and a bit beyond. After reading all the way to that point, I *believe* the anime to be a terrible adaptation of the manga- It’s looks like an amazing anime with great art direction, beautifully and carefully animated, but after reading the manga I don’t think *I* should ever watch it.

[JIC, I did do my research and watch the specific parts of the anime I refer to here as well as others I don’t mention below...]

Mind you, I will explain why I *feel* this way. I think (and I think it’s fairly obvious) that the *main* theme of the story is ‘the beauty of and value in the mundane.’ It’s stated over and over again that Frieren has a hard time understanding things that ‘humans’ feel, believe, or appreciate-- even if she herself expresses shares those sentiments. At the beginning of the story it’s explained how to her, the passing of time is ‘not a concern’ to her, and that for her the 10 years she spent with companions are ‘almost nothing.’ Basically, those things are ‘mundane’ to her. ’The ‘starting incident’ is her missing 50 years of her companions lives, and only understanding the ‘value’ of that time she “lost” after the Hero Himmel’s passing. After the funeral, she says she wants the Warrior Eisen to travel with her, but he is ‘too old’ to go with her.

After this she travels and ‘gains’ new perspectives and understandings. She ‘finds’ her love for the mundane as she loses another friend, gains an apprentice, gets new companions, and ‘carries on’ the legacy of Himmel. Himmel, was a mundane hero, and did mundane things over and over again. People remember Himmel not just for his heroic feats, but also his mundane acts- acts that Frieren couldnt exactly appreciate before his passing, but now does constantly because she now appreciates them. Whenever she has a flashback of her time with Himmel and her companions, it’s not her ‘remembering what she learned’ but ‘realizing what she didnt understand back then,’ and same for Heiter, and Eisen. Again, I think this is super blatant-

The anime adapts all of this, but... the adaptation is by it’s own nature, NOT mundane. The manga presents events and emotions in a very ‘matter of fact’ way, because the ‘view’ we are supposed to have is mundane. Many things in the manga just ‘happen’ with no fanfare or ‘emotion.’ Years pass in a bit of panels where only mundane things happen. Magic is presented not as ‘fantastical’ in the visual or narrative sense, and is treated as a ‘schoolarly topic.’ Frieren loves all magic, but the most magic she learns is ‘mundane’ which does ‘little’ visually and little in action: magic to polish bronze, magic to capture birds only within 50 cm, magic to turn read apples into green apples, etc. but magic that is very ‘meaningful.’ Frieren’s favorite is just magic to make flower beds. There are many other examples of this ‘mundane’ theme: Fern treasuring each ‘mundane’ gift, Stark killing the solar dragon ‘mundanely’ and easily... Frieren killing a demon with no threatrics... Serie ripping Flamme’s will with her own hands rather than with magic... the clone of Frieren appearing as a boss in a dungeon ‘matter of factly’... All ‘mundane’ events. Which is why the anime is a terrible adaptation: The anime is not mundane- the great art direction is not mundane, the beautifully and carefully animated sequences are not mundane... and the intense coreagraphed battles are not mundane. And we are not supposed to take them as mundane, at all.

The manga is beatifully drawn too, but the pacing, direction, spacial use, action scenes and effects are all in support of the main theme of ‘mundanity.’ Stark’s battle with the red dragon last 5 panels (5 actions); frieren kills the demon in 10 panels (from the moment 1 hand is cut) and it’s presented as a list of ‘moves;’ the barrier in the test breaks in 6 panels (1 page and a half) and is presented as a ‘deadpan joke;’ Frieren’s clone is introduced in 1 panel floating by the door with no fanfare. All in service of the main theme. The manga never lingers ‘too long’ on any one event. All of this scenes in the anime were used as showcases of great animation where the ‘point’ was ‘awe,’ not mundanity (accompanied with ‘fitting' music). Those are just 4 examples of many. The best way I can describe the diference from adaptation is to contrast ‘Oh, this is it.’ and ‘ OH! THIS. IS. IT.’

But, the main bit that kill any desire I had in me to watch the anime is Serie reading Flamme’s will. In the manga she rips the will appart with her own hands and a smile on her face, very matter of factly- in tune with the theme of the story (imo)... In the anime she uses magic to cut the will with a deadpan expression, in tune with the presentation of the anime. And before you say that’s a minor shift or a nitpick, let me explain why this bothers me so much: Serie dispises simple/mundane magic at that time- *To me* Serie using her hands is more in tune with her ‘view’ of magic at that time than using mundane ‘magic to cut paper’ into pieces. From my POV, if the manga is like ‘Himmel being a Fake Hero with no hero sword,’ the anime is like an ’in-universe story of Himmel being the chosen hero’-- And that’s a bad taste in my mouth...

All that being said, I DO recommend people watch the anime-- it really is a great anime, It’s just a terrible adaptation IMO, and I’m not about to speculate as to ‘why’ these creative decisions by the anime creators were made.